Morning Devotional

October  10, 2005
"A Good Race" (Part 10)     
    by Don Emmitte

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For I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.  (Philippians 1:19-26 NLT).

The letter to the Philippians has been quite a challenge to me this past week. There is so much that the Apostle Paul has written to encourage and broaden our perspective in this day of difficulty and trial. This week we will look at the end of the first chapter with Paul baring his heart before the church. He faces death with the hope that they will go forward as he gains his reward.

The question these verses beg me to ask myself is “am I living the kind of life which is really making a difference?” In other words, am I producing “fruitful service for Christ”? If I weren’t here, would I be remembered for my contributions to the Kingdom of God? I’m not sure I know the answer fully to those questions, but I know one thing. I want my life to count for Christ. Do you? When they speak of you at your funeral, do you want it to be easy to list the accomplishments God has brought through your life? I do. I have a passion to be found worthy of Christ. I know my life isn’t perfect, and there is so much I should do that I don’t ever get around to doing, but I really do want to finish well. I want to leave a legacy of service for Christ to my children. I want them to have testimonies of watching me walk by faith, trusting in God, and loving others through Christ.

Just last week when Kyle and I were coming back from the plant nursery where we procured some hay to cover the grass seeds we had just laid, he asked me some penetrating questions. The gist of them was how I knew that things would be all right when I had told him that they would be. The specific context was the birth of the twins, but it has implications to other times in our lives also. He asked if it was just my “positive optimism,” or if I really knew. Aside from a long explanation concerning the basis of hope and the strength of faith, I could easily answer him that I just knew. For the most part, that knowledge was rooted in the history of God’s work in my life. He simply has proven himself to be trustworthy. When he tells me something, I can count on it to come to pass. That might be the best obituary anyone could speak at my death – He trusted God! How about you?